By Sue-Ann Wayow
FORMER government minister under the People’s Partnership Dr Devant Maharaj is publicly throwing his support behind the People’s National Movement (PNM).
Not because of love for PNM but because of love for country, Maharaj wants to make clear.
Maharaj who is still a member of the United National Congress (UNC), said he has watched the UNC deteriorate since the last general election in 2020 and was now at crossroads.
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According to Maharaj, the UNC, a once great party has become a “shambling zombie, feasting on cronyism.”
In a statement on Monday, Maharaj gave a history of his political activism stemming from being an executive member of the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha (SDMS) since 1996 to his role with National Lotteries Control Board, chairman of the Public Transport Service Corporation (PTSC) and then as Minister of Transport and reassigned as Minister of Food Production in 2012.
Maharaj said, “My political journey has always been about principles, not power…That same conviction drives me today, as I confront the UNC’s current decay.”
When the UNC lost power in 2015, he continued being a voice for the Opposition until 2020.
“As the years wore on, a bitter truth emerged: the UNC, my political home, was rotting from within,” Maharaj said.
He said, “From 2020 to 2025, I watched the UNC choke on its own constitution, stomp out dissent, and crown blind loyalty over brains. Internal elections? A grotesque farce.”
“Once a party of progress, it now reeks of arrogance, nepotism, and stagnation—a mirror of politics’ worst sins, only uglier for its sanctimonious mask. The UNC’s democratic soul is dead, drowned in a swamp of petty loyalism and power lust. I can’t stomach the stench of a party that preaches accountability while gagging its own—Kamla’s throne is a mausoleum of broken promises.”
He said the UNC’s recent candidate selection was also filled with political puppets and the proposed Coalition of Interests was not because of vision for country but for a seething, venomous loathing for the PNM.
Maharaj said, “The UNC I joined is not the same UNC today, and the PNM I fought against is not the same PNM today.”
He admitted, “Yes, I spent years battling the PNM—and I make no apologies for those fights. If the UNC has become incapable of serving the people, then my duty is not to a party logo, but to the country itself. The PNM is far from perfect, but at this moment, it is the only force standing between Trinidad and Tobago and the UNC’s descent into outright cronyism and incompetence.”
To his detractors who may label him as “opportunist” Maharaj said if he wanted such a label he would have remained blindly loyal to the UNC.
He called out other UNC members.
“To my UNC comrades: wake up! Your precious party isn’t the hope we bled for. It’s a shambling zombie, feasting on cronyism. “Kamla’s Cult Crushes Democracy!”Let that headline sear your eyes. Join me, not for PNM love, but for Trinidad and Tobago’s survival. In 2025, I choose guts over garbage, progress over paralysis. Will you cling to the UNC’s carcass, or rise with me?”
